CHICAGO -- A woman who claims she was sexually abused by a Loyola University
professor, known for a series of books on love and relationships, when
she was a Loyola freshman 30 years ago is demanding action by the university
to assure that it won't happen again.

Diane Ruhl said Father John Powell, then a professor of theology and
psychology at Loyola, claimed he was trying to "help awaken her sexual
identity." Since then, she said he has written and met with her and
her husband and admitted that what he did was wrong.

"He told me this was for my own good. He told me he was helping
me," she said. "Because I was vulnerable and naïve, and
because he was well-known and popular and spoke about love, I believed
him. I trusted him because he was a priest, a Man of God ho, theoretically,
would never hurt anyone."

Powell married Jack and Diane Ruhl in July 1977. The Ruhls say that Father
Powell told them at the time that she did not have to go through pre-marital
counseling because she had already taken his course on love and marriage.
Only 27 years later did she admit to her husband that her first sexual
experiences were with Powell.

The experience has led both Ruhl and her husband away from the Catholic
Church. During a news conference on the Loyola University Lake Shore campus,
Ruhl said she has had lasting problems. "I struggle with trusting
people. I struggle with depression. I struggle with self-esteem. And despite
the fact that I know that he was wrong, and that it was his fault, I still
struggle with blame and self-doubt," she said.

Powell now lives in a Jesuit retirement home in Michigan. But Ruhl said
she wants assurances and action from Loyola, and the Society of Jesus,
the religious order to which Father Powell belongs, and which operates
Loyola.

"We need to make sure that the Jesuits, and the board of trustees
of this university have a program so that this does not happen again to
any other student," she said. Members of the Survivors Network of
Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) said they wanted to see Powell removed
from the priesthood, and sales of his books halted.

The priest in charge of conduct inquiries for the Jesuits' Chicago Province,
Father James Gschwend, told WBBM that Father Powell is fading physically
and mentally and has not been allowed to undertake public ministry for
several years.

"He's really not very competent to do anything," Gschwend said.
"Physically he his eyes are bad and it's very difficult to speak
with him."

Nonetheless, the Ruhls said that last year, Father Powell indicated he
was finishing his autobiography.

The Jesuits Oct. 21 announced settlements in several cases involving
Father Powell, once a prolific author on psychology and relationships.
Powell published more than two dozen books; many of the books are still
available from both secular and religious bookstores, although Father
Gschwend said, "Sales have plummeted the last several years since
he had these allegations."

Gschwend conceded that Father Powell's book royalties have always been
assigned to the Jesuits' Chicago province, with much of the money being
put toward missionary activities and other charity in both in the United
States and overseas.

A Loyola spokesman referred all calls on Father Powell to Father Gschwend,
who was unable to say what Loyola is doing specifically to address sexual
misconduct involving priests. Asked what the Jesuits as a religious order
are doing to try to spot and remove pedophile priests and those engaging
in other forms of sexual misconduct, Gschwend said, "Everybody's
doing everything they can. The whole country, I hope, is more aware to
the problem than we were decades ago."